RLDubbya
HMFIC
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2016
- Messages
- 388
Note: this is not a complete review, not by any stretch. These are my working notes based upon opening the knife and looking at it both superficially and closely for the first time. A lot of my remarks are highly critical; to say that I am not a big fan of the knife is probably the understatement of the decade. However, given some time to both use the knife and to reflect upon my initial thoughts, I might well find those initial thoughts which are negative to be tempered to a high degree.
Please, if you choose to read this, do not read it as a final review. Keep in mind that my thoughts might become more charitable over time. By all means, go and spend $120 and get a copy of the knife in your own hands, before you let hurt feelings dictate an angry response to my thoughts.
Add post-posting: it has been established that the poster is an ignorant ape who is also illiterate. The said ignorant ape would ask that you simply skip over this post, do not read it, and the ape will not be responding to any further comment. The ape apologizes for posting his notes on this site.
I have been hesitant to purchase a more expensive WE. I recently had good reason to purchase a budget knife, so I picked up a WE 617F. I had wanted the "A" model, but it was out of stock at my preferred vendor; all they had, in fact, was the "F", so I scooped it up. First impression, opening the box in the kitchen with my wife.
She says it reminds her of army, the star hardware seems like an army thing to her.
The blade is supposed to be two-toned; both of us struggle to see anything but one color. We both hold the knife various ways; after a couple minutes, we conclude that either (a) I misread the description, and it's supposed to be one color (b) If I polish the blade, the second color will appear (c) we're both somehow blind to the second color.
The knife deploys nicely. Wife is impressed when I shave my arm hair. (Note to self: right arm is pretty void of hair from testing blade sharpness after using my new strop. Must remember to shave left arm, or another body part.)
We "ooh" and "aah" over the zippered case; that definitely makes a good impression.
Since it's the first flipper I've had, and the first she has even seen, I deploy the blade a few times. It feels OK: but really not that solid. The liner lock, in particular, seems a bit flimsy. But we "ooh" and "aah" some more over the shiny blade snapping out into position. Wife concludes that I look more "dashing" with the flipper than with the K2. At 6', 270lbs, and a face that makes a Mack truck shudder, I take that as a good thing. Lesson: the uglier the model, the prettier the knife.
I head upstairs to my workshop, turn on the high-intensity work light, pull out a work pad, and open the box again.
The outer cardboard box identifies the knife as "617F- Tan G10 Handle - Satin Blade - D2 Blade". No mention of 2 tone. I go to the vendor's site: it clearly says "two-tone" and the picture of the knife they have for the 617F matches everything about mine, except theirs is 2 tone. I go to the WE knives site. They show a two-tone bladed knife. I look at my copy: it's a one tone blade, even upstairs on my work table. No magikal morphing. Big, big points against the knife for this.
I wipe down the blade with some Flitz; it glistens in the halogen light. It's OK sharp. The grind is...well, kind of crappy when I look at it closely. There are inconsistencies in the grind angle, especially at the heel and tip. It almost looks like multiple passes were made at slightly differing angles. There are random belt / grinder marks in the grind, like it can't decide if it's supposed to be toothy-sharp or polished-sharp. There's a tiny little extra nub, almost like a burr, near the heel on one side. Near the tip, it looks like the very end of the tip has been rolled over slightly.
If this was a $300 knife, it would be boxed up and returned, and I would be demanding a refund.
So much for the grind. So we're taking points away for not being the knife in the pictures I thought I was buying, and the grind.
The rest of the blade looks pretty good after being polished. The main portion of the blade has vertical brushing; the area surrounding has horizontal. Not an issue; the finish marks are expected, they look fine.
There is weird jimping on the blade spine near the heel. I hope it's a fashion statement, because it affords no increased purchase on the blade. Oh: the jimping is tan, matching the handle. I guess that's my two-tone blade. Technically, like weasel-words from the mouth of an attorney, that does make the knife two-toned.
Remember, at this point, I have the blade locked open; I just polished it super clean; I have not touched it. It's still super clean. I close the knife, careful to use a microfiber cloth so I don't touch the blade with my feelthy feengers.
Careful to not touch the blade, I deploy it again. It has a lot of oil, or grease, spots covering the surface. I wonder where that can be coming from?
Examining the innards with a flashlight - I'm not going to pull this knife apart - I see that the black liners are rather covered with grease. Nothing terrible; I would not knock any points off for this.
I like the design of the flipper tab and liner lock. Even I have to put some thought into how I'm going to close the blade on my fingers. Good job there.
The lock itself: well, it's a cheap liner lock. It's strength is going to depend on the quality of the liners. The liners are not skeletonized. Lock-up is very early on this knife, 15%?
The blade has only a small "D2" stamp, no other markings that I can see.
Poor centering of the blade when closed. Clearly pulled over to the presentation (non lock) side.
I'm done. In this exercise, I'm at the point where the knife just feels cheap in my hands. The G10 _looks_ good, like it should be high quality. But it disappoints when held; this is sort of the converse of the Spyderco lightweight series, where I look at the FRN handles and think they look cheap and weak, but when I hold the knife, I'm pleasantly surprised by how sturdy and solid it feels.
The 617F is clearly a $100 knife. Maybe it's a $75 knife. I'm going to purchase a Kershaw flipper for comparison. This is not a $400 knife; nor a $300 knife, nor a $200 knife, nor a $150 knife. The issue of the blade tones aside, which is a fairly serious oversight that I'm letting the company slide on, this knife is disappointing. That's probably my fault; I tend to have high standards, and I allowed myself to get caught up in the hype surrounding this company. I thought I would be getting a $300 knife for $100; that's not realistic.
However: there are some potentially serious manufacturing issues with blade grind, and assembly. Given that the pivot is supposed to have ceramic bearings, I don't want to attempt disassembly or tweaking to remedy the off-center blade.
The most glaring question I have to ask: if a company cannot be trusted to get the difference between single tone and two tone correct, can they be trusted to use the advertized material for the liners? The liners are supposed to be stainless steel. They are painted black. Are they in fact stainless? What kind of stainless? Given that my hand is trusting the liner lock, these are important questions.
Please, if you choose to read this, do not read it as a final review. Keep in mind that my thoughts might become more charitable over time. By all means, go and spend $120 and get a copy of the knife in your own hands, before you let hurt feelings dictate an angry response to my thoughts.
Add post-posting: it has been established that the poster is an ignorant ape who is also illiterate. The said ignorant ape would ask that you simply skip over this post, do not read it, and the ape will not be responding to any further comment. The ape apologizes for posting his notes on this site.
I have been hesitant to purchase a more expensive WE. I recently had good reason to purchase a budget knife, so I picked up a WE 617F. I had wanted the "A" model, but it was out of stock at my preferred vendor; all they had, in fact, was the "F", so I scooped it up. First impression, opening the box in the kitchen with my wife.
She says it reminds her of army, the star hardware seems like an army thing to her.
The blade is supposed to be two-toned; both of us struggle to see anything but one color. We both hold the knife various ways; after a couple minutes, we conclude that either (a) I misread the description, and it's supposed to be one color (b) If I polish the blade, the second color will appear (c) we're both somehow blind to the second color.
The knife deploys nicely. Wife is impressed when I shave my arm hair. (Note to self: right arm is pretty void of hair from testing blade sharpness after using my new strop. Must remember to shave left arm, or another body part.)
We "ooh" and "aah" over the zippered case; that definitely makes a good impression.
Since it's the first flipper I've had, and the first she has even seen, I deploy the blade a few times. It feels OK: but really not that solid. The liner lock, in particular, seems a bit flimsy. But we "ooh" and "aah" some more over the shiny blade snapping out into position. Wife concludes that I look more "dashing" with the flipper than with the K2. At 6', 270lbs, and a face that makes a Mack truck shudder, I take that as a good thing. Lesson: the uglier the model, the prettier the knife.
I head upstairs to my workshop, turn on the high-intensity work light, pull out a work pad, and open the box again.
The outer cardboard box identifies the knife as "617F- Tan G10 Handle - Satin Blade - D2 Blade". No mention of 2 tone. I go to the vendor's site: it clearly says "two-tone" and the picture of the knife they have for the 617F matches everything about mine, except theirs is 2 tone. I go to the WE knives site. They show a two-tone bladed knife. I look at my copy: it's a one tone blade, even upstairs on my work table. No magikal morphing. Big, big points against the knife for this.
I wipe down the blade with some Flitz; it glistens in the halogen light. It's OK sharp. The grind is...well, kind of crappy when I look at it closely. There are inconsistencies in the grind angle, especially at the heel and tip. It almost looks like multiple passes were made at slightly differing angles. There are random belt / grinder marks in the grind, like it can't decide if it's supposed to be toothy-sharp or polished-sharp. There's a tiny little extra nub, almost like a burr, near the heel on one side. Near the tip, it looks like the very end of the tip has been rolled over slightly.
If this was a $300 knife, it would be boxed up and returned, and I would be demanding a refund.
So much for the grind. So we're taking points away for not being the knife in the pictures I thought I was buying, and the grind.
The rest of the blade looks pretty good after being polished. The main portion of the blade has vertical brushing; the area surrounding has horizontal. Not an issue; the finish marks are expected, they look fine.
There is weird jimping on the blade spine near the heel. I hope it's a fashion statement, because it affords no increased purchase on the blade. Oh: the jimping is tan, matching the handle. I guess that's my two-tone blade. Technically, like weasel-words from the mouth of an attorney, that does make the knife two-toned.
Remember, at this point, I have the blade locked open; I just polished it super clean; I have not touched it. It's still super clean. I close the knife, careful to use a microfiber cloth so I don't touch the blade with my feelthy feengers.
Careful to not touch the blade, I deploy it again. It has a lot of oil, or grease, spots covering the surface. I wonder where that can be coming from?
Examining the innards with a flashlight - I'm not going to pull this knife apart - I see that the black liners are rather covered with grease. Nothing terrible; I would not knock any points off for this.
I like the design of the flipper tab and liner lock. Even I have to put some thought into how I'm going to close the blade on my fingers. Good job there.
The lock itself: well, it's a cheap liner lock. It's strength is going to depend on the quality of the liners. The liners are not skeletonized. Lock-up is very early on this knife, 15%?
The blade has only a small "D2" stamp, no other markings that I can see.
Poor centering of the blade when closed. Clearly pulled over to the presentation (non lock) side.
I'm done. In this exercise, I'm at the point where the knife just feels cheap in my hands. The G10 _looks_ good, like it should be high quality. But it disappoints when held; this is sort of the converse of the Spyderco lightweight series, where I look at the FRN handles and think they look cheap and weak, but when I hold the knife, I'm pleasantly surprised by how sturdy and solid it feels.
The 617F is clearly a $100 knife. Maybe it's a $75 knife. I'm going to purchase a Kershaw flipper for comparison. This is not a $400 knife; nor a $300 knife, nor a $200 knife, nor a $150 knife. The issue of the blade tones aside, which is a fairly serious oversight that I'm letting the company slide on, this knife is disappointing. That's probably my fault; I tend to have high standards, and I allowed myself to get caught up in the hype surrounding this company. I thought I would be getting a $300 knife for $100; that's not realistic.
However: there are some potentially serious manufacturing issues with blade grind, and assembly. Given that the pivot is supposed to have ceramic bearings, I don't want to attempt disassembly or tweaking to remedy the off-center blade.
The most glaring question I have to ask: if a company cannot be trusted to get the difference between single tone and two tone correct, can they be trusted to use the advertized material for the liners? The liners are supposed to be stainless steel. They are painted black. Are they in fact stainless? What kind of stainless? Given that my hand is trusting the liner lock, these are important questions.
Last edited: